Saturday, November 28, 2009

[“Hale Smith in about 1990” (Photo by Joseph Szabo, The New York Times)]

NYTimes.com By William GrimesPublished: November 27, 2009“Hale Smith, a classical composer who also worked as a performer and arranger with jazz greats like Dizzy Gillespie and Chico Hamilton, died Tuesday at his home in Freeport, L.I. He was 84. The cause was complications of a stroke, said his wife, Juanita.

“Mr. Smith, who wryly described himself to The New York Times in 1990 as 'one of America’s most famous unknown composers,' straddled the two worlds of jazz and classical music as a performer, composer, arranger and teacher. From his early teens, he played jazz piano in the nightclubs of Cleveland, his hometown, but he went on to study classical composition and achieve a national reputation for an eclectic oeuvre and his synthesis of jazz and 12-tone technique.”

“In 1948 he married Juanita Hancock. In addition to his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Robin, of Manhattan; three sons, Michael, of Freeport; Eric, of York, Pa.; and Marcel, of Harpursville, N.Y.; and three grandchildren.”